Golf is played by millions of Americans each year. There are more than 16,000 golf courses in the United States. Millions of people also enjoy bowling by rolling bowling balls down gleaming wooden lanes each year. Both sports have top performance professionals and societies that issue specific rules, standards for equipment, and foster competition for playing the game. Each sport also has participants who simply enjoy recreation provided by the sport, as well as modifications of the sport, such as playing golf or bowling at arcades, miniature golf or miniature bowling. Players thus range in grade from more serious players to recreational players in both sports.
Beginners in these sports are coached and/or learn from trial and error. Learning fundamentals and attempting perfection leads to a range of frustration to a sense of accomplishment. Experience and skills are sometimes developed to the point that results in the “ranking” of the player. Associations have been formed to monitor and promote these sports. The best players may be seen on television playing in competition.
Half of golf strokes are on the greens. Usually courses require 2 putts per green for 18 holes. Putting typically involves a relatively gentle tap to roll the golf ball. Successful putting to minimize the number of putting strokes to sink the ball in the golf hole requires extreme effort of concentration and skill. Skills develop by practice. Four elements in putting concern addressing the ball, developing consistent stroke, learning aim, and applying the correct amount of tap or putt to the ball to achieve desired movement and stoppage of the putted golf ball. Practice putting greens at golf courses are not sufficiently fitting for repetitive practice needed for learning or for sharpened honing of successful putting technique to be applied on greens on a golf course. For example, practice putting greens do not provide for mechanized retrieval of putted balls. Practice putting greens rarely provide a range distance references so a person practicing putts knows how exactly how far the putt will be to the practice hole. Practice greens have drainage slope and irregular surface undulations. In addition, practice putting greens are limited in that they are only available for use when weather is permitting.
Conventional apparatus include portable or permanent practice putting surfaces. See e.g., the U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,645 (Servatisus), U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,971 (Wayne), U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,265 (Codlin), U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,412 (Koo), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,673 (Occhipinti). For other conventional apparatus for practice putting, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,667 (Wan-Chu Tu), U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,101 (Postula), U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,250 (Centafanti), U.S. Pat. No. 2,057,504 (Schafer), U.S. Pat. No. 1,952,187 (Wade), U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,865 (Pilati), U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,239 (Heuser), U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,106 (Coonrod), U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,926 (Hanson), U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,033 (Tucker), U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,648 (Petermeier). Despite the benefits provided by these conventional practice putting surfaces and apparatus, there is still a need for improved putting surfaces and apparatus.